Obama mocks McConnell over economic credit

By Steve Benen

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President Barack Obama told Democrats on Friday that their work has improved the economy while strengthening the middle class, and jabbed at Republicans for trying to take the credit after stiffly opposing his agenda for six years.

Speaking at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting, Obama said it is “no accident” that his policies have lifted the country out of the recession he inherited when he took office. GOP predictions of “doom and gloom” over policies like health care have proven untrue, the president said.

Now, job growth and positive economic news has led Republicans to adopt Democrats’ mantra of being “the party of the middle class,” he said.

Specifically referencing McConnell, the president told DNC members, “As he was coming in, after having tried to block every single thing that we had done to strengthen the economy, starts looking at the jobs numbers and says, ‘You know, it’s getting better because we just got elected and people are feeling more optimistic. I didn’t know that’s how the economy worked.”

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When Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Ted Cruz claim to be outraged about limited prosperity and the widening wealth gap, it suggests Obama is moving those same rhetorical pillars to the left. This isn’t to say Republicans are less right-wing – they’re actually more conservative than ever – but the president has changed the conversation in such a way as to force them to highlight issues they would otherwise prefer to ignore.

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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obama-mocks-mcconnell-over-economic-credit?cid=sm_fb_maddow